Agreed at 4th meeting of the Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety (WPNCS) [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPNCS(2001)1]

Summary Record of the 15th meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee [NEA/SEN/NSC(2004)3]

Summary Record of the 18th meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee [NEA/SEN/NSC(2007)3]

Extended as a part of WPNCS activities at the 21st meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee in June 2010 [NEA/SEN/NSC(2010)3]

Extended mandate as a part of WPNCS activities at the 23rd meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee in June 2012 [NEA/SEN/NSC(2012)3]

Change of name from the “WPNCS Expert Group on Criticality Safety Benchmarks” to “Technical Review Group for the International Criticality Safety Benchmarks Evaluation Project” [NEA/NSC/WPNCS/DOC(2013)6]

Mandate reviewed and extended at the 16th meeting of the WPNCS on 21 September 2012 [NEA/NSC/WPNCS/DOC(2013)6]

Mandate extended at the 19th meeting of the WPNCS held on 10 July 2015

Mandate extended at the 21st meeting of the WPNCS held on 30 June 2017[NEA/NSC/WPNCS/DOC(2017)2]

Mandate of the Technical Review Group for the International Criticality Safety Benchmarks Evaluation Project [NEA/NSC/WPNCS/DOC(2018)1]

Mandate (Document extract):

Extract from document NEA/NSC/WPNCS/DOC(2018)1

Mandate:

Scope

Under the direction of the Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety (WPNCS) the Technical Review Group will coordinate the programme of the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) and the development of the ICSBEP handbook and database. These comprise an evaluated set of benchmark specifications derived from experiments performed at various nuclear critical facilities around the world. The benchmark specifications are intended for use by criticality safety engineers to validate calculational techniques used to establish minimum subcritical margins for safe operations with fissile material.

The Technical Review Group will also develop a database tool (DICE) to facilitate user access to the ICSBEP benchmarks.

Objectives

To provide the nuclear industry with an evaluated set of benchmark specifications by collecting criticality experiment data from the nuclear criticality laboratories, world-wide. More specifically the objectives are as follows:

Identify and evaluate a comprehensive set of critical and sub-critical benchmark data;

Verify the data, to the extent possible, by reviewing original and subsequently revised documentation, and by talking with the experimenters or individuals who are familiar with the experimenters or the experimental facility;

Evaluate the experimental data and uncertainties;

Compile the data into a standardized format;

Perform calculations of each experiment with standard criticality safety codes;

Formally document the work into a single source of verified benchmark critical data;

The Expert Group will closely coordinate its work with other NSC groups developing databases of integral experiments. In particular there will be close links with the Working Party on Scientific Issues of Reactor Systems (WPRS) Expert Group on Reactor Physics and Advanced Nuclear Systems (WPRS-EGRPANS). This group is responsible for coordinating the development of the International Reactor Physics Experiments (IRPhE) database.

A key element of the evaluation process is a rigorous analysis of the uncertainties, including quantification of correlations between experiments. There will be strong linkage between the ICSBEP Technical Review Group and the WPNCS Expert Group on Uncertainty Analysis for Criticality Safety Assessment (EGUACSA).

Deliverables

Provide annual editions of the Handbook on DVD and provide downloadable versions through suitably protected websites in accordance with NEA Data Bank protocols;

Develop and maintain a database tool (DICE) to allow users to search the database using keywords and create listings of experiments with matched characteristics. The tool is to be distributed with the handbook in accordance with NEA Data Bank protocols.